She has been called Canada's first lady of folk, but musician Penny Lang isn't in the business to become a big star.
"I'm an entertainer," she says. "The response from the audience is the most important part of the evening." She's had plenty of time to hone her warm stage style.
Coast Reporter caught up with her at a small coffee shop in her new home of Madeira Park, far removed from the big Montreal cafés where Lang got her start in the 1960s singing folk music. Her earlier recordings deliver a husky, bluesy style, and she had teamed up with other well-known musicians, such as Kate McGarrigle on piano. The child of a musical, working class family, Lang learned the Irish ditties and Scottish songs of her heritage, then graduated easily to the folk and blues tunes of the 1960s.These days, Lang has chosen a simple lifestyle, and she loves it.
Last October, she travelled to the Coast from Montreal, sang at the Gumboot ("They knew I would be back," she said), then visited a friend in Madeira Park. She knew this place was right for her. She packed up her Montreal belongings and moved to a trailer park on the Coast. She is gleeful about the move: "Good neighbours, lots of good community events, I've joined the seniors group, I listen to speakers, enjoy the quilters, and after 30 years I've rejoined the church."
On the verge of turning 64, her life is just beginning. It was meant to be. Over 20 years ago, she started work on writing a song called "Diamonds on the Water," but put it aside, only to get it out again much later. It seems to be have been made for the Coast: "Too much rain around our town. And many friends are heaven bound. Got to move near the ocean not far away. Diamonds on the water every day."
This is one of the few Lang-written songs on her latest CD, stone + sand + sea + sky, a come-back recording just released on an indie label, Borealis Records. It's a concept CD, as the industry people say, carefully constructed over a period of two years and striving to balance each song according to its mood. It includes songs by Bob Dylan and numerous other songwriters and traditional folk melodies. It was made by Oscar-nominated film producer and Grammy-nominated record producer Roma Baran. She was a 16-year-old hospital orderly when she first heard Lang play one night in a Montreal café. She was immediately inspired to learn guitar and join the band. After 30 years, the two are working together again.
The blues permeate this CD. Certainly, Lang says, it's tinged with sadness. Her life has been trying many times. She has struggled as a single mom, with bi-polar illness, with the many labels that society has attached to her. Then, in 2000, she suffered a stroke - a clear sign to change her lifestyle.
"It made me realize that I have to make choices for myself, not always for others," she said.
She wanted to become healthier.
Lang has just returned from a successful tour of sold-out shows in small venues across North America everywhere from Man-hattan to Sudbury. Her son, Jason Lang, now a sideman to many Quebec stars, joined her on this tour. In November, she and the Pender Harbour Music Society are planning a concert on home turf, in Madeira Park. That concert will probably include tunes from the new CD, and it will also include songs that suit the audience - Lang is adamant about that. They could be songs from the 1940s, children's songs or those from her Scottish background."If I have a sense of the audience getting bored, I change the program," she said. "I try to go to their hearts and their toes."
